Google is considered as a phenomenal brand that stands for its innovation and leadership and completes mammoth tasks in grace. Another thing that goes Google”s way is that it is known for its optimistic approach to future planning. Personally for me this is the one company that directly affects the daily lives of people. Microsoft on the other hand has revolutionized what software industry by its greatest innovations of Windows the legendary Operating system which till date gives the other companies a run for their money when it comes down to user friendliness and ease of use.

The only reason for dislike for the two companies is due to their voracious eater reputation which of course comes from the havoc that broke loose when the news about both companies acquiring Yahoo! came into being. But even then we love them both as they make the large information out there usable for us!

Is Google a threat to the company where the genesis of the most popular Operating System of the world happened? Is Microsoft feeling the pressure to prove this wrong? Is Google trying to push Microsoft out of the picture considering the rate at which this giant is growing?? Well, I have made an attempt to answer these questions. Read on…

Starting with the brand value of the two giants.

After being declared as the number one brand in 2003, Microsoft never really had a chance to get back to that position owing to the increasing fame of Google. The position which was once Microsoft’s is now unamiously that of Google as the formers market value dipping and the latter’s leaping at an astounding pace! And finally in 2007 Google was declared as the number one!

From the 20th position in 2007, to the 10th position in 2008 and then the top position later, there really has not been any looking back for Google. This does not mean in any way that Microsoft is not getting their pie in the market. If we look at their turnovers and profit there hasn’t been much of a change but their goodwill sure has been shadowed by that of Google. It is probably after this that Microsoft decided to give the search giant its run for money with developing its new search engine Bing which has surely come a long way keeping in mind its not so popular Microsoft Live Search.

Search engine arena

Bing claims to be a “decision engine” and that it doesnt jus ‘SPIT OUT’ results on the order of popularity(am sure that would have hit Google really hard! ). It’s designed to help people search the Web more intelligently — to find the right information that can aid them in making decisions. The benefits of using Bing are very subtle but only with use they become evident. It is not as intutive as one would want it to be. For instance, if we roll over the results, in the margin we might more links leading to more information. Bing is being suggested to be the best for product related , travel related searches where it not only gives the information but can also order the results according to preferences like cost, hygine etc. The results that Bing gives are ofcourse different from that of Google which was very much expected as they use different algortithms. But it is said that when it comes to specific searches the results were more or less similar. One of the major drawbacks are that Bing’s video search tool has a preview mode that lets you view and listen to part of a video simply by hovering over it with your mouse. Trouble is, it works with porn as well as “family friendly” videos.If you would like to know more here are some reviews 1 , 2

One June 4, according to data just released by StatCounter Global Stats, Bing accounted for 5.62 per cent of all worldwide searches, compared to Yahoo!’s 5.13 per cent. Meanwhile, Google grabbed a typically monopolistic 87.62 per cent.

This new kid on the block is definitely off to a great start lets see whether it can be a threat to the search behemoth Google! (Being a Google fan it just doesnt sound so likely! 😛 But I have to agree that Bing is much better than its predecessor!) Some say that it took Microsoft a decade to make its way to the battle ground, turning up late to a fight that has already been won, the victor having since turned their attention to loftier pursuits. Its just a matter of time

In the same week Bing came out, Google unveiled their secret project Walkabout, or as we now know it, Google Wave. Google Wave addresses the simple question, “What would online messaging look like if we built it today?”. Google gas been working on this for two years but even then it seems they are still the only contenders in its area, with no other companies raising hands to say they were also trying to solve the problem Wave addresses.Google really knows how to be on the top! 😛

Wave brings together e-mail and instant messaging, as well as forums and blogs and wikis and business collaboration all in one new protocol.Rather than require a user to decide on a specific form of communication which the message will forever be bound to – like an e-mail or IM – Google Wave implements living messages. They are simultaneously e-mails and IMs. They are blogs and wikis and documents all at the one time. Some key technologies in Wave are Real-time collaboration, Natural language tools, etc. To know more click here.

Here’s a video, I know its long but its awesome!

Operating System Arena

In this arena Microsoft sure has its monopoly. Let us see what happens with Google stepping in here also.Google is set to offer its free Android mobile-phone operating system for computers, opening a new front in its rivalry with Microsoft Corp.by challenging the dominance of the company’s Windows software. This sure is turning out to be an epic-battle!

Web Browser arena

Overall IE numbers still dropping as IE8 gains share at the expense of IE7 while rivals like Chrome,Firefox and Safari gain users. It is said that Chrome’s usage share climbed by 0.4 of a percentage point, from 1.4 to 1.8 percent, the largest one-month increase since the browser debuted last September. The gain represented a 27 percent surge over April. Good news for Google again. Though IE 8 is better than the earlier versions lets see if it manages to lure users but it is said that IE8 presents a special tallying problem for Net Applications. The trouble stems from IE8’s “compatibility view” feature, which lets users display sites as rendered by the older — and often Web standard-incompatible — IE7.

Who has the last laugh??? Well, it is really hard to say but I think seeing the innovative stuff Google is coming up with, it gives us users this feeling that it knows what we want! So for this reason I would vote Google! 🙂

I started thinking about my Childhood dreams after watching Randy Pausch’s last lecture which was about achieving your childhood dreams. At that point when I tried to think what my ‘Childhood’ dreams were I couldn’t think of anything specific except meeting Shah Rukh Khan 😛 lol. The rest that came to my mind was just not specific enough! Things like doing something similar to what Steve Irwin did (for those of you who dont know I like snakes). No, I dint want to work in a zoo all my life but something like that! I told you it wasnt specific.

That was the one thing that really got me thinking… We always have different desires at different times but it seldom sticks on… I started thinking that I wasnt focussed enough and thought my dreams were too weird to come true. Like Randy says the brick walls are there to separate those who really want it and those who dont. Probably, I was among the ones who just din’t want it so badly and so I never got it also!

But for a very long time now, it is to work for the Giant we all know as ‘Google’ …. When you dream you shouldn’t dream small things… So I started thinking BIG! And this is one of the things that did stick on! Well, now thats a little specific better than what it was earlier though I still have a long way to go in going down to the details of it! But there is something else I am clear about, whom I am going to share my cubicle with! 😛 😛 There are a few of us at college whose dream company is none other than Google! And we dream working there and sharing cubicles also! 😛 😀 I know it may sound silly but what the heck! By the way if you guys want to check out who the other google dreamers are, here are the links to their blogs http://www.bytehead.co.nr/ , http://avinashjoshi.co.in/. Sadly the others dont blog till now!

Many people often ask me why Google? why not Microsoft or any other giant! My answer always has been the same. I feel Google is the only company that DIRECTLY affects the lives of people! Right from a fifth standard student to a pHd student, for any projects or any home works Google has the answer. Like they say Google knows it all! There is even ‘The Church of Google’ which I have mentioned in my earlier post.

Getting back to ‘Why Google?’. We have all heard that we want t0 use technology for people, to change lives and that is the essence of what Google does.

There is an interesting story about the launch of Google Maps for Bangladesh. Google was supposed to launch maps for India aound the same time floods struck Bangladesh. They wanted to launch maps for Bangladesh also but there was not much time in hand. I am not surprised that in a short time the googlers made this happen! This was very much the site the NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) used for relief operations. Talk about affecting lives of people, Google is the best example!

Another reason was meeting Dr. Prasad Ram who is the head of R&D at Google India at a conference on Web technology where he was the Keynote speaker. His talk was not complicated like many of the other talks.In fact, his was one of the very few talks that left an impact! More than the technology, he focussed on what we need to achieve from it. His spoke of Democratization of INDIA! While talking about technology either people speak about the technology in the most confusing manner possible to make themselves look like the intellectually elite class or they just DONT mention what the aim of this is keeping India in mind. He spoke about networking through NGOs to make outreach effective. That is what is making an attempt to solving the REAL problems of India! The enthusiasm I saw in him made it very clear to me what the ‘Google Spirit’ is all about. This was another major reason for this dream to stick on.

Lets all hope that Google keeps doing what it is best at, ‘Changing Lives of People’. And hoping I too would be a googler sometime. Oooh! I almost forgot to mention another reason, I absolutely love Google t-shirts!!! 😀 😀

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